Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:
Shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) are up 14 cents, or 1.2%, at $11.90 after Synchronoss (SNCR) late yesterday said it would purchase the operation called NewBay from RIM for $55.5 million in cash.
NewBay is what analysts call a “white label” cloud computing services provider, which can be branded by phone companies to give cloud services to customers. Gray Powell with Wells Fargo, who rates Synchronoss shares Market Perform, this morning offers his approval of the deal, writing that it “will likely accelerate SNCR’s cloud deployment with Verizon [Communications (VZ)], which was expected to ramp to $45MM – $50MM in annualized transaction revenue in early 2013 and to $70MM in 2014. Furthermore, it gives SNCR a foothold to up sell cloud services to multiple carriers. Note – SNCR is already testing cloud services with AT&T (T) and has an early stage relationships with Orange.”
Synchronoss shares this morning are up 73 cents, or 4%, at $21.22.
Shares of chip maker LSI (LSI) are up 5 cents, or 0.7%, at $6.96 after Wunderlich Securities’s William Sandy Harrison initiated coverage with a Buy rating, writing that the company should benefit from its early entry into NAND flash-based storage systems, for which it provides controller chips, and also from designs wins for its wireless infrastructure chips.
Apple (AAPL) last night said in its proxy statement for its annual shareholders meeting, to be held February 27th at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, that it granted no restricted stock units to CEO Tim Cook following the $376 million it granted him last fiscal year, which vests in 2016 and 2021.
Cook’s total compensation this year is $1.36 million in base salary plus $2.8 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, plus a 401K contribution. Apple’s board noted in the filing that despite increasing Cook’s base salary from $900,000 to $1.4 million, “the target annual cash compensation for Mr. Cook remains significantly below the median annual cash compensation level for CEOs at peer companies.”
In case you were wondering what that might be, a piece this morning by Reuters’s Sinead Carew and Liana Baker states “According to a study of the Fortune 500 conducted by Forbes this year, CEOs were paid a base salary of $1.1 million in 2011 on average, with the mean annual bonus at $2.4 million and average total compensation – including stock awards – at around $17 million.” The median is not the mean, of course, but the report gives some context, at least.
Speaking of Apple, a piece this morning by DigiTimes‘s Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai claims that Apple’s plans for revisions to its laptops is causing concern among vendors of “ultrabooks,” the slim, sleek, lightweight notebooks that Intel (INTC) has heavily promoted with hardware partners. According to the authors, the revamped MacBook “Air” model, which may come in June, could prompt price cuts in existing MacBook models, which the ultrabook vendors fear would put pressure on their own prices.
Apple shares this morning are down $1.46, or 0.3%, at $513.60.
Shares of Barnes & Noble (BKS) are up $1.07, or 7.6%, at $15.42, after the company this morning said�its holiday sales results “will be below expectations and that the NOOK business will not meet the Company�s prior projection for fiscal year 2013,” referring to its Nook Media LLC outfit, its e-book reader platform. However, the investors have looked past the bad news and are instead focusing on the announcement in the same filing that U.K. publisher Pearson (PSO) will invest $89.5 million in the company’s. Nook Media has a valuation of $1.79 billion, post-money, said B&N, giving Pearson a 5% stake. Microsoft (MSFT) owns 16.8% of the operation. Pearson will bring its expertise in various study curricula to the Nook, B&N said.
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